Thread: Rondo?
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Old 12-18-2014, 02:26 PM   #123
EricaLubarsky
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iggymcfly View Post
It's below league average for a starting NBA PG, but he's closer to league average than he is to Devin Harris defensively. It's a small, incremental upgrade. I read Haralabos Voulgaris on Twitter a lot. He's the most successful NBA bettor in the world, and he spends 50+ hours a week watching NBA soecifically focusing on individual defense so he can chart the value of each player defensively where statistics are a lot less reliable. He was constantly ripping Rondo's D as being vastly overrated and below league average even back when the Celtics were consistently making the playoffs and he still had young legs and was consistently putting in good effort. Rondo's been MUCH worse than that on D the last 2 years.
I respect your opinion about him generally, but have a couple of issues

1) Defense is 90% effort and effort is the first thing you lose during rebuilding. Insecurity, lack of talent, tons of roster turnover, a new coach with all new plays.Could anyone in the league keep up their level of play and effort during a time of rebuilding? Add to that Rondo's unhappiness with the direction of your team and I think it's obvious that Rondo isn't playing at his peak even if he still is almost averaging a triple double for the season. Will he turn it around here? I'm not sure, but because he's been playing with less effort while the Celtics have been in transition isn't automatically a hit on him.

2) It's really hard to quantify individual defense, because defense is not 1-on-1 and fundamentals don't equal always equal results. Defense isn't just about contesting shots. It's about getting in their head, taking away their confidence, and making them nervous. It's about making players who are comfortable driving left, drive right. Some of the most effective players in the world were terrible fundamentally, but produced good results. Alvin Robertson was one of the least fundamental players in the league, who was always cheating off his man to play lanes, slapping, clapping, etc., but he was also a top-5 defender of all time. It's about the effect that the defense has rather than the fundamentals. DeShawn Stevenson was the same way. He wasn't fundamental, but he played his buns off and players never felt comfortable with him out there. As we've seen-- we can't just throw Chandler out there and immediately become a top-10 defensive team. Even when Stevenson didn't funnel guys into the team defense, he'd have them off balance and out of their comfort zone.

Even when this current Mavs team plays fundamental defense, we aren't in their heads. Opposing teams are comfortable and confident even when we are contesting shots and funneling to Tyson.

I'm not saying that Rondo is top-10, but like Tyson Chandler, he's also been voted to both NBA defensive first and second teams (2 and 2, vs. Chandler's 1 and 2). He can't hurt as a replacement for Nelson for both his defense and rebounding. We need someone who can make players upset. We need players who can disrupt a team. We need a guy who can rebound (he's currently #1 among PGs in all rebounding stats, including advanced rebounding stats.) Most of all, we need a crazy bastard like Stevenson again.

Last edited by EricaLubarsky; 12-18-2014 at 02:31 PM.
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